Make Big Tech managers personally liable for child safety breaches online
The Government introduced the much wanted and vitally important Online Safety Bill in March 2022 - the Bill returns to the House next Tuesday.
I welcome this landmark Bill, but, in common with a great number of my colleagues, I think it needs to go further. That's why Sir Bill Cash and I have tabled an amendment to the Bill with the intention of introducing a criminal offence for directors and senior managers – punishable by a maximum of two years in prison – when it can be proved that a breach of the child safety duties has been committed with the consent, connivance or neglect of a senior manager or director.
When personal liability was introduced for the construction industry there was a massive drop in accidents and deaths - there is no reason why the same cannot be true for proven child safety breaches online.
Writing in the Telegraph, I set out my concerns.
Miriam Cates MP | The Telegraph | January 2023
Future generations will look back on children’s online harms the same way we look back on children who were forced to work down mines
For children, the internet is a modern Wild West, a lawless and predatory environment where they daily encounter content intended to draw them into self-harm, addiction and sexual abuse.
Reports of the serious and permanent harms being done to children online are as numerous as they are shocking. Tragic individual cases like those of Molly Russell and Sophie Parkinson have rightly caused public outrage but sadly it is not just a handful of children whose futures are being destroyed by online harms.
Around 3,500 online child sex offences are recorded by police every month. In December, it was revealed that children on TikTok have been exposed to suicide content within three minutes of joining the platform. Each and every month 1.4 million UK children access online pornography, some of which is violent, degrading and abusive. I could go on.
The need for more protections in this area couldn’t be more urgent. But in its current form, the Online Safety Bill will not deliver on its essential and fundamental mission to keep children safe online.
Unlike comparable legislation covering sectors such as the construction or financial services industries, the Bill will not hold tech bosses individually and personally criminally liable for failures in their public safety duties. The only senior manager liability introduced by the Bill at present will be for failures to share information with Ofcom.
Although the Bill threatens large fines for non-compliance, this is simply not enough. If you think that tech bosses are going to wake up one morning and suddenly decide to prioritise child safety then I have a bridge to sell you. As regulations for other sectors show, only the threat of personal sanctions for senior managers will drive the significant culture change that is required in Big Tech boardrooms.
Without urgent action, we risk passing a Bill that lacks the teeth it so desperately needs to force global tech firms to tackle the systemic issues that harm children online. That is why Sir Bill Cash and I will this week table an amendment to the Online Safety Bill with the intention of introducing a criminal offence for directors and senior managers – punishable by a maximum of two years in prison – when it can be proved that a breach of the child safety duties has been committed with the consent, connivance or neglect of a senior manager or director.
There have been a number of previous attempts to introduce senior manager liability to the Online Safety Bill. But although the Opposition is in favour, so far the Government has refused to accept the principle, saying variously that it is unworkable, unprecedented or that tech companies will flee the UK under such stringent regulations. But we need only look to Ireland to see that these fears are unfounded: the Irish Online Safety and Media Regulation Act includes senior manager liability whilst Ireland remains the headquarters for most technology firms in the EU.
The Government is also out of step with public opinion.
Polling shows that the majority of UK adults want senior tech managers to be prosecuted for failures that resulted in serious harm to children.
We cannot waste this final opportunity to ensure that the Online Safety Bill succeeds in protecting millions of British children from unspeakable online harms. If the Bill fails in this mission, it will not only be a moral and social failure, there will also be a political price to pay for the Conservatives.
As far back as 2015 we promised in our manifesto to end children’s exposure to harmful online material, and in 2017 we committed to making the UK the safest place for children to be online. But for eight long years we have failed to fulfil these promises. If the Online Safety Bill is passed unamended, it is unlikely that the public will see any improvements to children’s safety before the next election.
I understand why governments have a proclivity for treating the tech sector with kid gloves; after all, the biggest tech companies are wealthier than some countries and internet services have become essential national infrastructure. But the ultimate authority for setting acceptable standards of behaviour for companies operating in this country should be the UK Parliament and not Californian tech billionaires. If the Online Safety Bill is to be truly world leading – as the Government claims – then we must demonstrate that democratically elected Governments have the power to hold Big Tech to account and not the other way around.
Future generations will look back on children’s exposure to online harms in the same way as we look back on children who were forced to work down mines or neglected in Victorian orphanages. These injustices were ended by robust legislation, and the UK Parliament has a proud history when it comes to challenging vested interests to defend children’s welfare. In supporting this amendment on 16th January, Conservative MPs can ensure that the Online Safety Bill continues this proud history, by holding to account powerful executives who knowingly allow our children to be harmed.
This article was first published in The Telegraph in January 2023
I have recently undertaken interviews and written articles to share my thoughts on this legislation further:
